Evolving

Now it is time that I must morph my old blog into a newer one. I'm somewhat removed from the Printing world and am now working for the Paper world. Granted, I still work with printers on a daily basis, I am now a vendor of theirs.

The transition from selling printing to selling paper has been more difficult than I originally imagined. I thought I would have no problem picking up whatever new protocols that there might be. So far there are so many different rules for every little thing, I believe it will take some time before I have a good handle of the day to day managerial tasks that I have to do.

I have no problem with the selling part and thoroughly enjoy the part of my job where I go from customer to customer, visiting with them and updating them with whats going on in the paper industry. However, there is an entirely different job that happens once I get back to my desk that involves painstaking processes that are difficult to understand, but I'm getting there.

I have to transition this blog and I'm not sure how to. Any advice out there? I'm trying to figure out a way that I can bring in my current status as a paper sales person to the mix and still utilize what I know as a printer. Who knows, maybe this doesn't even matter, I mean, this is pretty much just an creative outlet hiding behind what I think is useful to any of you that might read this.

Maybe I should stop trying to make this about what job I have at the moment and make it more of a creative round table where people can write and be written to about any creative ideas that they have at the moment, and belive me, I have a few.

A Juncture

I have changed employment in the past month which has left me really distraught. Unfortunately, this was a necessary move. I'm now selling Fine Paper as opposed to printing. Oh, and it's not the same thing as working for Dunder Mifflin. Professionally, it will be a lot similar to selling printing.

I will be calling primarily on Printers to sell them parent sheets, rolls, digital paper or if they want copy paper, that too. I won't be picky. I'm hungry and if I can sell it, I will.

The internal battle I'm facing has to do with leaving a position that I wasn't entirely happy with to a position that has a questionable future. My new position does have a great upside in the fact that I will be working from home, I can make my own hours, I now have company 401k matching, better health insurance and I'm attaining an established territory.

The downside at the moment is I feel depressed and lost. I am also scared that this position could dissolve at any moment and the possibility is out of my hands. All I can do is hope for the best and try to learn as much as I can in the time that I have. Never the less, I worry. I'm really good at worrying. I know the current depression is mostly due to changing environments and having to get acclimated all over again to a new company. I miss my old co-workers. I miss the day to day banter we had.

Regardless, all that I missed unfortunately was not paying the bills. I had to make the move or I'm not sure what the outcome would have been. Where's the light at the end of the tunnel?

Ups and Downs

There are a lot of ups and downs in sales that make it tough to stay really motivated and wanting to keep coming to work every day even after numerous rejections. What keeps me motivated are these two guys:

I surround myself with pictures of my two boys to always keep me motivated and striving for more. I couldn't stand not being able to provide for them in the way that I think they deserve.

It's tough being rejected but for every 10 rejections there has been a really customer that has come along that makes me want to do my job better. Some of you, and I hope you know who I'm talking about, give me a lot of joy in doing my job. You make it easy to be a sales person of which I'm really not. I don't consider myself a sales person. I like to think of myself more of a solutions expert and client manager willing to do whatever it takes to make my customers happy.

Sometimes when I get down, usually due to being really slow at work, I get in my car and start to drive. I try and open my mind to find out what am I doing wrong or what I'm not doing right. It usually boils down to apathy. I tend to snap out of it quick usually when I get home at the end of the day and my three year old son runs up to me and jumps in my arms. I love that. Or as I'm leaving to work in the morning and the three year old gives me a hug and kiss and says "don't go to work daddy, stay here with us". That breaks my heart but at the same time, it gets me going and I don't want to dissapoint him by not working really hard during the day.

Sales will always be tough however if I strive to keep a creative mind and always service my customers to the best of my ability, I know I will make it. It also doesn't hurt to have my two sons as my motivation!

Environmentally Friendly

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is just one of the many new ways that Printers are becoming more environmentally aware. Using soy based inks, recycled paper and wind power energy are a few others. Our company follows a lot of environmental practices, many of which you can find at http://www.bridgetown.com/environmental.html.

FSC has really helped our industry create awareness in the environment where soy based inks and recycled paper have kind of dwindled. FSC has created a serious buzz in ours and many other industries with its creative marketing campaign. One of the FSC logos is a Rainforest Alliance logo and on the logo is a frog. I know a few customers loved using that logo on their brochures and have said they will continue to do so on future projects. Each time we print this and the FSC logo, we create awareness.

I read the other day that Gibson Guitar has produced 25 environmentally-friendly guitars with the Live Earth logo on the front and they are FSC certified. Apparently they will be auctioned off to benefit the Live Earth concerts and Alliance for Climate Protection. This is very cool.

We all try to do our best to help the environment and in addition to sorting my plastic, paper and aluminum goods at home I try to educate my clients on the uses of FSC information. Printed information gets seen by a lot of eyes so the more jobs I can get these logos onto, the more I feel I'm helping create awareness for the safety of our forests.

Just do it!

My very first boss in the printing industry used to say "Just do it" and that has stuck with me all this time. When I first started in printing, I worked as an estimator figuring out the costs and the way a print job would run. I remember complaining one day about a request I received to provide a multitude of options for a print estimate. My boss turned to me and said, "Just do it! It's going to have to get done anyway, you might as well stop complaining about it and get it done!" This was said in a semi-jest way but I knew he was right.

From that day forward we both lived by that Mantra and whenever someone complained about something they had to do, we gave them that advice. It is good advice. Too many times I think we as a whole complain just to complain so other people will feel pity for us. In the end, if it is something that has to get done, you just do it and get it over with. Complaining about it won't get it done faster or make it easier to get done. One of my best friends just called me complaining about all the work he had to get done by the weekend and you know what I said?

You know it. . .

Take a minute . . .

More and more I find that I don't take a minute and just notice things once in a while. I often get to wrapped up in life and what I'm doing to ever stop and smell the roses. Yesterday, as I was taking the trash up my hill to the curb, I found myself looking into the sky and noticing the blueness of it and the scattered clouds that reminded me of childhood and how I used to lay on the ground and seek out animal shapes from them.

I remember one time watching a lifetime movie about a person that became blind later in life due to some illness that couldn't be prevented. The actor in the movie mentioned that she missed being able to see the colors of the leaves, sky and the grass. After watching that movie, I tried to take a little time every now and then and just appreciate the ability to see and hear everything around me. I take it for granted most of the time however yesterday I just took a minute while taking out the trash to just listen and see the world around me. It was nice and I'm gonna try to do it more often because if I don't, I may just miss it.

Cell Phone Madness

What did we do before cell phones? I mean, it wasn't that long ago that if I was in the car and I had to call someone, I had to pull over and find a pay phone. A pay phone! What the hecks that? Have you ever seen anyone use one lately? I did and it was a little odd. I was thinking, that guy's using a payphone, who does that anymore? Who doesn't have a cell phone these days? How much does a call cost from a payphone now? Is it still a quarter? Too many questions. . .

On the flip side, I think its weird seeing really young kids with cell phones as well. I don't know why, it just seems too grown-up, like they should earn it somehow. I say that now but that thought goes right out of the head when I think about my two sons growing up, going to school and having the luxury of being able to reach them when I need to.

I also think about how different my job would be without a cell phone. Obviously, sales positions survived before them but I'm not sure if I would be as efficient. With my disposition, I like to contact my customers as soon as possible after receiving a voice mail. If I didn't have a cell phone, I couldn't have received the voice mail in the first place if I was away from my desk and who knows when I would have been able to return the call.

Cell phones may not have the best reputation but they sure have helped me and I'm sure they'll help me even more in the future.

Putting things into Perspective

I was listening to the Adam Corolla Show this morning on the radio and they were taking callers who seemingly had extraordinary problems and put them into perspective for them. I constantly have to remind myself daily to put things into perspective.

Things can get out of hand so quickly and all perspective is lost. For instance, One of my co-workers had a project that was due to deliver last Friday, yet when he came in this morning to the office, he found out that the project didn't deliver on Friday but was delivering today due to challenges that happened that was out of his control.

I know it is never good to miss a delivery date and we always strive to deliver earlier than expected if possible. In actuality, the delivery location was wrong from the beginning given to him by his customer. When he called to let his customer know this, immediately the world was coming to an end. You might as well close the door and go home. The day was done and the customer lost everything that meant anything to them. Did anyone lose their job over the project showing up a day late? Did someone get hurt or possibly maimed when the truck didn't get there on Friday?

I understand that the end result wasn't what the customer was expecting and we would never purposely deliver the job late if there had been an agreement with our customer beforehand to deliver it on a certain date. But stuff happens. We have to get over it and move one. Think about the next step or how this might not happen again. It's a good thing it wasn't two days or possibly, (don't even think about it) three days late! My God, what would happen then? The Apocalypse? Maybe. . .maybe we should put things in perspective and think about the bigger picture sometimes.

As a society we should demand excellence however when we are sidled with less, we should adapt and make due because when you think about it, there are a lot of things far worse than whatever daily problems we face.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Printing has many emotional ups and downs like most jobs, however I'm here to tell you about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of print sales.

The good parts of print sales focuses around knowing you have a great partnership in a customer after persuing them as a prospect for a long time. They call you up or email you letting you know that another project is on its way to you without you even giving them a quote first. They are bidding you out, they know that the service they are receiving goes far beyond the menutia of getting quotes from multiple vendors.

Also when you complete a project for a customer without a hitch. They love the end product and praise you for it. I love that email when it comes through reading, "We love these brochures!" It is a great feeling.

The bad happens when projects go awry without having the control to change the outcome. For example, a brochure that is printing and is due to the customer by a specific date and the last process of the project gets botched. This happens usually because someone lacks attention to the details and the brochures get folded wrong or scuffed creating a inferior product that the customer will not be happy with. A process that the print salesman has no control over can create a bad situation where a customer could end up severing ties with the company this print salesman is associated with.

The ugly (worst of all), happens when after a project goes awry and instead of doing damage control and attempting to fix the situation by taking responsibility for the inferior product, the company ends up trying to blame the customer in any way it can. This can become very ugly and can produce such a bad taste in the customer's view that one, they will never come back and two, the ugliness can spread to other customers giving the printing company a bad name in the industry causing a whole slew of other problems.

I try to stay only with the good however the bad happens sometimes and i've steered clear of the ugly. I can only do my best to make sure my customers are happy mainly due to hard work and honesty, both traits that are endearing to my customers.

advice

I've been in the printing industry now for over 10 years and there is a new breed of office employee taking over companies. This new breed no longer takes 2 hour lunches filled with alcoholic consumption, blowing off the rest of the work day nor is there a good-ol' boy network to compete with anymore. Dem good-ol' boys are dyin' out and more importantly, print buyers are becoming smarter and younger.

Print Sales employees can no longer rely on the "wine and dine" technique and must have real time knowledge of their customer's projects. This is a must. I am a part of this new breed. We are hardly "sales people" but more of solutions experts. We dedicate ourselve to making sure our clients our taken care of and that doesn't include buying them season tickets or expensive wine, but giving them the confidence that their projects are taken care of and will look professional and deliver on time.

The new breed is here to stay and the legacy print sales people will have to learn how to adapt or move on. It's kind of like the new breed of poker players but I'll save that for another post. . .

View Upcoming Screenplay

Here is the beginning of a screenplay I have been working on that I hope to get made into a movie that shows the highs and lows in the life of sales.

Gist: Best friends find themselves in similar life situations as they both have moved to Portland, Oregon. Both are married each with sons whom were born a week apart. They have embarked on new careers that are paying a fraction of where they were making a year previously mainly due to a way of life each wanted to live. Robert and his family, who moved from San Diego, California was more into the natural setting and bohemian vibe that the city of Portland evoked rather than the superficial air of southern California. Courtney and his family who moved from Boston, Massachusetts wanted to be closer to family as Portland offered a central location from his family in Washington to his family in California.

It parallels the struggle in each of their lives to maintain a level of security by providing a good life for each of their families and succeeding in their careers. The part of this movie I’m not sure about yet is the catalyst to where they end up making it. By making it, I want the viewer to see that they are both comfortable with there careers and have even got to a point where they are living out some of their dreams, i.e. playing golf once a week, going on nice vacations and generally not worrying about their financial situations. Will it be one cataclysmic event (both land whales of an account) or will it just be that they continue to put time aside to spend time with each other and strive to help the other succeed in their careers and home life.

UNTITLED

Scene One:
(Setting)
Two Men sitting at a table in a restaurant, the camera is focused only on their hands, holding their drinks, showing expensive watches, each wearing a suit, talking to each other, never showing above the chest on each man.

First Voice: What did Quentin say?
Second Voice: (He couldn’t remember.) (smirking)
First Voice: I think I’m right though
Second Voice: No way. I specifically remember that from the movie and he
definitely says “When Bonnie goes shopping she buys SHIT”
First Voice: Maybe.


Scene Two:
(Setting)
The camera focuses on the passenger seat and on the seat lies the 2001 Dr. Dre’s Instrumental CD. The cd is playing and track 4 “Still D.R.E” is playing in the background. As I’m driving down the road, the camera shows the reflection of the trees on the jewel case. Also lying next to the jewel case is an obscure book (House of Leaves) that will show up throughout the movie in subtle ways as to intrigue the viewer to notice but not make it super obvious. The narrative goes:

My Voice: I’m thirty-two years old, I’m married with a two year old son and one on the way. My family and I have just moved from Boston, Massachusetts to Portland Oregon to be closer to our families. I work as a Graphic Arts Sales Executive which is just a euphemism for a Print Salesman. It’s all about building relationships right? Fuck that! It’s more about being in the right place at the right time and acting on the luck that you’ve been given.

I thought I was destined for greatness but maybe my greatness isn’t synonymous with fame and fortune. Is this all there is? What am I going to do?

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CRITIQUE WITH ANY FEEDBACK THAT YOU MAY HAVE

Service

To me, excellent service is the difference between a good printing company and a great printing company. I have worked for four different printing companies and my current company, Bridgetown Printing is by far the most service oriented company making customers feel comfortable and at ease with their vendor decision.

We stand behind our word and we let the customer know that they are the most important customer to us whether they give us one project a year or 30. We do not play favorites and treat every customer with respect and gratitude. We know that it is our customers whom keep us going and we do not want to lose any of them.

We strive to be the best whether offering creative solutions to cut time and costs or making sure we stand behind our product taking responsibility for any in-house challenges that may arise.

How printing is changing

I've noticed over the last several years that the printing industry has become more service driven utilizing more of a targeted approach from the marketing side. This has in turn caused a decrease in the quantities being printed for direct mail and collateral thus reducing printer's margins and increasing the chance for error. To combat this printers have grasped onto digital technology to supply 1 to 1 marketing to their clients and end users.

Although Digital technology hasn't quite gotten as good as offset their is a noticeable effort made to get more in line with offset printing. For any variable pieces or short run small signature/postcard jobs digital printing is the way to go. It offers a time savings as well as cost efficiency not mentioning the environmental benefits that go with using less paper and wasting less raw materials with the exception of toner based ink.

Offset printing will still be a strong player for many years within the Printing Industry however as time goes by we will see less and less large run projects and more and more small run specialized variable projects.